For the general Population - Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in women with the exception of nonmelanoma skin cancers. It is the second leading cause of death by cancer in women, following only lung cancer. There is a new diagnosis of breast cancer every 3 minutes and a life loss every 14 minutes. For African American women our statistics are different. Cancer accounts for nearly one-quarter of deaths in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease. Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed in women, and the leading cause of cancer deaths in young African American Women. In 2009, an estimated 194,000 new cases of breast cancer was diagnosed in women in the U.S., of those cases 19,540 were African American women. In general the number of new cases is about 10 percent lower in the African Americans than in Whites. However, the incidence of breast cancer is higher in White women over the age of 45, whereas in African American women the incidence is much higher under the age of 45 and the mortality is worse. We die disporportionately to our white counerparts.